“We announced in late January that we would be doing a restructuring of about 3,000 people across the globe,” said Walters. “We said approximately 10 percent of that would be across the U.S. and 10 sites would be affected.”

Although the plant employs workers from as far as southern New Hampshire, the majority live in Billerica, as well as Tewksbury and other surrounding communities, said Melanie Manne, the plant’s human resources manager.

Walters said the timeline for the impending layoffs and the plant’s closing is not definite and is pending discussions with their clients, but said plant will likely close within the next six months.

Jabil Circuit is an provider of electronic manufacturing services for many clients in the aerospace and defense, automotive, computing and storage and medical fields.

The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based company — employs some 85,000 employees in about 55 facilities in 22 countries worldwide. Last year Jabil netted $12.8 billion in revenues, according to the company’s overview on the company Web site

Over its 10 years of operations in the town, Jabil has been an active part of the town’s business community.

In 2001, it joined forces with other local companies Nortel and Welsh, as members of the Community Fund program, geared to giving back to non-profit organizations seeking help in the town.

Town Manager Bill Williams said the loss of the company’s contribution to the fund program will mean less money donated for town’s non-profit organizations who benefit from the grants.

The plant closure’s layoffs will no doubt add to the town’s rising unemployment.

As of December 2008 5.8 percent of the town's workforce was unemployed, as compared to 3.8 percent in December 2007, according to data from the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

In one month the town’s unemployment rate jumped from 4.7 percent in November 2008 to 5.8 percent in December.

With a work force of 22,000 residents in December 2008, some 1,200 residents in the town are without a job, according to the statistics.

“There’s a trickledown effect for towns [when companies close],” said Williams. “[The employees] may or may not be homeowners in Billerica, but they are homeowners in towns within a 20-mile radius, so the effect is compounded.”

Williams said the large loss of jobs in the town results in less income to the state and the town.

Chief Town Assessor Rich Scanlon said Jabil at one point occupied about 200,000 square feet of a property valued at $22 million, located on the Lowell, Tewksbury and Billerica border.

Scanlon said the company has since downsized to occupying about 150,000 square feet of the property they lease.

The company pays just over $500,000 in property taxes each year.

“We get taxes and state aid,” Scanlon said. “The other really negative part is they can see that industrial and commercial buildings are a drag on our community and it will affect our tax assessments.”

Although Scanlon said there is a common misconception that vacant buildings immediately lose their total value, the property will retain some value.

“It will have a negative effect on the property right away meaning increased property taxes, which will have to come from something else,” said Scanlon. “Most likely the residential taxes, which is not what we want to do. We want to keep our business healthy.”

This year, the Board of Selectmen shifted as much of the burden off of the residents and onto commercial and industrial properties and set a tax-rate of 1.75 percent.

O’Donnell said he thinks the biggest fallback from the plant’s closing is the 315 workers left jobless.

Both O’Donnell and Scanlon said Jabil’s closing is part of a trend, in the town of companies, beginning with the Boston Globe printing facility closing, that they do not want to continue.

“It’s a sign of the dot.com industry,” said Scanlon. “Jabil followed Nortel Networks to Billerica. It’s not surprising to see Jabil filling for bankruptcy and then Jabil following suit and closing. I think it’s a sign of how bad the business sectors are. Billerica is typical of what’s going on in the overall environment.”

O’Donnell said the town will work with state and federal officials to find ways to lessen the burden of the unemployed workers.